Local philanthropy has been growing and gaining visibility in the Ghanaian philanthropic space in recent years. This has led to an increased interest by not just philanthropic organizations but corporate bodies as well as individual donors in supporting community development agendas through the provision of financial and non-financial resources. However, these initiatives are always carried out in silos, which sometimes leads to redundancy and, in some cases, a top-down approach to community development, consequently leading to insignificant outputs and value to target beneficiaries.
To address this, Penplusbytes under its “Yen Somu Bi” (translates as “Let’s lend a helping hand”) project will on Thursday, 23rd November 2023, convene donors mainly drawn from the private sector and NGOs for a pitch and funding event dubbed “Pitch for Change” as a means to build partnerships and lay the grounds for continuous engagement between NGOs and the private donor community.
For Peter Adivor, Team Lead for the Yen Somu Bi project, “the Pitch for Change event seeks to leverage the rich resources, knowledge base, and experiences of civil society coupled with the financial resources and talents of the private sector, to improve community development.”
Touching on the format of the event, he indicated that the event will take the form of a face-to-face interaction where selected NGOs will be allowed to make presentations to donors, and in turn, donors will be allowed to screen pitch ideas presented to them and support or partner on project ideas that align with their corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals.
The Yen Somu Bi project seeks to shed light on domestic philanthropic giving using an innovative research-linked fundraising and advocacy platform. The project recently launched a USSD Code (*920*199#) as part of offline interventions to streamline the fundraising and donation process.
The platform (www.yensomubi.org), built with funding support from the STAR Ghana Foundation allows Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Community-based Organisations (CBOs) and individuals interested in philanthropy to mount campaigns that appeal to different philanthropic individuals and entities and cause them to react by contributing their time, talent, or monetary resources.
Currently, the platform consolidates all the appeals for funds or non-financial support from CSO partners under the STAR Ghana Foundation “Giving for Change” Program.
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About Penplusbytes
Penplusbytes is a not-for-profit organization driving change through innovations in the following key areas: technology and good governance, climate and well-being, new media and innovation, and the extractive sectors.
About STAR Ghana Foundation
STAR Ghana Foundation is a national centre for active citizenship and philanthropy. The Foundation works towards the development of a vibrant, well-informed and assertive civil society able to contribute to transformational national development and inclusive access to high quality, accountable public services for all Ghanaian citizens.
